40's and 50's
The end of World War II was not just the end of a war, but also the beginning of a tense and dynamic period that affected society on all levels. This “postwar” period, as it became known, shaped the world as we know it today; likewise, the period was shaped itself both by the war that had preceded it, and the powerful forces that surrounded it.The middle class had swelled, unemployment rates were some of the lowest in history, and the “American Dream” was for many families a reality. In addition to the positive economic situation, the United States had become the most powerful country in the world. However, just as America had just begun her recovery from World War II, suddenly the Korean Conflict developed. The USSR became a major enemy in the Cold War. Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to know that Communists had infiltrated the United States government at the highest levels. Americans were feeling a sense of national anxiety. Was America the greatest country in the world? Was life in America the best it had ever been? As the decade passed, pop culture reflected the conflict of self-satisfaction with the Happy Days and cultural self-doubt about conformity and the true worth of American values. Servicemen's Post-War Perceptions The accounts from soldiers describing combat in general present an image of a hellish nightmare where all decency and humanity could be lost. For men who fought under these conditions, coming home was a very difficult transition. Above all, these men wanted to return to "normalcy", to come back to a life that they had been promised if the war was won. This would turn out to be harder to obtain then first expected, problems ranging from the availability of jobs in the work force to child raising and post-traumatic stress would make this return to "normalcy" very troublesome. This laborious task of reintegrating into American culture would eventually lead to problems in the gender relations in post war America. Civilian's Post-War Life Some major changes began to take place in the American population. Many Americans were not satisfied with their old ways of life.They wanted something better. And many people were earning enough money to look for a better life.Millions of them moved out of cities and small towns to buy newly-built homes in the suburbs. Our program today will look at the growth of suburbs and other changes in the American population in the years after World War Two. Pop Culture Books The decade opened with the appearance of the first inexpensive paperback. Book clubs proliferated, and book sales went from one million to over twelve million volumes a year. Many important literary works were conceived during, or based on, this time period, but published later. Thus, it took a while for the horror of war and the atrocities of prejudice to come forth. Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery to demonstrate how perfectly normal, otherwise nice people, could allow something like the Holocaust. In The Human Comedy, William Saroyan tackles questions of prejudice against the setting of World War II. Richard Wright completed Native Son in 1940 and Black Boy in 1945, earning acclaim, but government persecution over his communist affiliation sent him to Paris in 1945. Nonfiction writing proliferated, giving first-hand accounts of the war. Authors like Norman Vincent Peale and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, indicate the power of the individual to control his or her fate whereas the concern with conformity is reflected in David Riesman's, John Kenneth and Ayn Rand's works. A new group of authors appeared on the scene in the form of the beat generation or as some called them beatniks. Best known of these are Jack Kerouac - Kerouac's works - On the Road, Dharma Bums, The Town and The City, Mexico City Blues (poetry), Lawrence Ferlinghetti A Coney Island of the Mind. Science Fiction became more popular with the actual possibility of space travel, Ray Bradbury wrote The Martian Chronicles. Spaceships of the 1950's Isaac Asimov wrote I, Robot, and other books about worlds to be discovered. Established authors continuing to write included J. D. Salinger-The Catcher in the Rye; Truman Capote -The Grass Harp; John Steinbeck- East of Eden. Television At the end of the war, only 5,000 television sets, with five inch black & white screens, were in American homes. By 1951, 17 million had been sold. Perhaps the most far reaching change in communications worldwide was the advancement in the area of television broadcasting. During the 1950s, television became the dominant mass media as more people brought television into their homes in greater numbers of hours per week than ever before. In the early fifties, the number of hours young people watched TV steadily increased, a trend which has not changed greatly since that time. What was portrayed on television became accepted as normal. The ideal family, the ideal schools and neighborhoods, the world, were all seen in a way which had only partial basis in reality. People began to accept what was heard and seen on television because they were "eye witnesses" to events as never before. Programs such as You Are There brought historical events into the living rooms of many Americans. The affect on print news media and entertainment media was felt in lower attendance at movies and greater reliance on TV news sources for information. And then, in 1954, black and white broadcasts became color broadcasts. Shows called "sitcoms " like The Honeymooners , Lassie, Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , and I Love Lucy featured popular characters whose lives thousands of viewers watched and copied.